Air Is Heavy for Bryant, Lakers

On Monday afternoon, Kobe Bryant, reluctantly the story again, squeezed past dozens of reporters, narrowed his eyes and snapped, “Can I have room to breathe?”

The day before, on the final Sunday of the NBA’s regular season, Bryant had mystified his Laker coaches and teammates in Sacramento, taking one first-half shot as the Kings built their blowout.

Believing there would be little to be gained by a public flogging of the fragile Bryant, and hoping Bryant believed he’d made his point to whomever it had been intended, the Lakers spent the next 24 hours in recovery mode, at which they are quite practiced.

In his first comments on Bryant’s role in the game, Coach Phil Jackson absolved Bryant of sinister motives.

“I thought he was feeling the team out, which was good,” Jackson said. “I thought he was getting the ball to the right people, which was the right thing to do early in the game. I thought he tried to push it a little harder the start of the second period.”

In the last week, Jackson and several Lakers had been critical of Bryant’s shot selection in losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers, though most of it had been so mild it had come disguised in generalities.

Still, according to several players, Bryant was displeased and, to express it, used the stage of national television and a game that might determine the Pacific Division title, along with home-court advantage in later playoff rounds.

“I don’t know how we can forgive him,” one Laker said.

Another claimed the team no longer could be sure of Bryant’s mentality, particularly daunting as the playoffs approached; he was again their most talented and clutch scorer. He remained so despite playing the season under the weight of a felony sexual-assault charge, which brought a dozen days of pretrial hearings, three more of which are scheduled in two weeks. He rarely has had room to breathe.

Bryant refused to give a second day of life to the controversy, and after brushing past reporters did not return to the practice gym.

Pressed Sunday afternoon on the possibility he had hoped to educate his coaches and teammates to his scoring value, Bryant insisted he had been defended well by the Kings, by Monday the fifth-worst defensive team in the league.

Jackson, who’d made a short statement after the Lakers’ third loss in four games, the latest knocking them to fourth in the Western Conference, took questions Monday, and generally supported Bryant’s claims. He also laid ample blame on Laker jump shooters, pointing out that Devean George, Bryon Russell and Slava Medvedenko failed to hit a shot during one early stretch.

Asked whether he believed Bryant’s offensive slowdown might have been a reaction to Jackson’s earlier criticisms, he said, “No. I didn’t at all. No.”

And yet, Jackson said, one of the reasons he did not take questions after the game was to avoid being drawn into an analysis of Bryant’s game, potentially dangerous given Bryant’s state of mind and Jackson’s usual bent toward honest examination, no matter how painful.

“It’s pretty obvious,” he said. “You come into the locker room at halftime, you’ve taken one shot and that was because he had to beat the buzzer. It was pretty obvious at that time. I said, ‘We have to get going.’ ”

By then apparently less unsettled by the Kings’ double-teams and having been moved for some possessions to small forward, Bryant attempted 12 second-half shots. It was, however, far too little to catch the Kings, who were as successful in shutting down the rest of the Lakers, including all of the future Hall of Famers. If there was displeasure with Bryant in the locker room, Jackson said, he was unaware of it.

“I haven’t heard any criticism one way or the other,” he said. “I try to avoid criticism, because I think Kobe’s trying to do the best he can to help us win games.”

Karl Malone was the last man out of the Laker practice facility Monday afternoon, and he smiled at the mention of the latest Laker storm. In only his first season with the organization, and possibly his last, Malone has seen a few, and he waved his hands.

“We’re not talking about yesterday,” he said. “Don’t take me back to yesterday. I will tell you all this, though, it’s going to be all right. ... I feel it. I feel it right here [in my] gut.

“I just like our practice we had today.”

At about the time Bryant was being booked last summer, it was Malone who helped rebuild the Lakers, who told General Manager Mitch Kupchak he’d leave the bigger money to Gary Payton, if that meant they’d both be Lakers.

With less than a week left before the playoffs, it was Malone who insisted all of his teammates, Bryant included, had similar agendas, or would by today.

“I feel we do,” he said. “Maybe it’s me being that stubborn. But I feel we do.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

West Playoffs

Eight playoff teams have been determined in the Western Conference. Sacramento holds second seeding as Pacific leader. In postseason, No. 1 team will play No. 8, No. 2 will play No. 7, etc.:

*--* Team W-L GB 1. Minnesota 57-24 2. Sacramento 55-26 2 3. San Antonio 56-25 1 4. LAKERS 54-26 2.5 5. Memphis 50-30 6.5 6. Dallas 50-30 6.5 7. Houston 45-36 12 8. Denver 43-38 14

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